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MLB News & Moments You Should Know: 4/4/2024

We're gonna party like it's 2019.

Asher Dratel
MLB Morning News 4/4/2024

Stay updated on everything baseball with our morning MLB News & Moments articles. We’ve got you covered to keep you in the know.

Continued terrible weather in the northeast means that the Detroit Tigers get to claim the mantle of the only undefeated team remaining as we hit midweek. Just, you know, don’t necessarily look at the fact they’ve only played four games.

 

Today’s Headlines

Say “Pip, Pip, Chourio” To That Baseball

Look at that, I’m already in midseason pun form. Who needs Spring Training?!

Anyway, yesterday was a big one for Milwaukee’s top OF prospect Jackson Chourio, as he clubbed his first big league home run off of Daniel Duarte:

And no rookie dinger is complete without the cold shoulder upon their return, right? Thankfully for Jackson, every Brewer’s jersey has a nice big target to slap.

The 20-year-old outfielder signed an 8-year, $82 million deal in December, locking him in on the Opening Day roster, and he’s gotten off to a pretty scorching start, with a .375/.412/.438 line going into yesterday’s game against the Twins.

That SLG did seem a little low to me for a guy with 60+ grade power, and I guess he agreed. His home run put the Brew Crew up 3-1 over the Twins, but a four-run meltdown from Joel Payamps in the seventh inning helped Minnesota come back to win the day.

I doubt it’ll be Ueck’s last time calling one this season.

 

KC Votes No

Jackson County voters overwhelmingly voted to not extend a sales tax that would have collected an estimated $2 billion to fund Arrowhead Stadium repairs and build a new stadium for the Royals in downtown Kansas City. The final count was 58% of voters in opposition.

Sherman’s response is vague and a little cryptic, but could we see another vaunted franchise trying to pull up stakes so close after Oakland? It seems like an unfair response to voters realizing that public funding for private sports arenas is a losing proposition for the public and I’m sure we’ll get more detailed responses from both teams’ ownership in the coming days.

 

A’s To Sacramento?

I tried to make a Kings joke here but every bit of news about the A’s just makes me a combo of mad and sad at this point. Late breaking news last night seems to point to the A’s temporary pre-Vegas home being just a bit northeast of their current one, as they may move to Sacramento for three years.

As you can see, details are still sparse, but if there’s one thing John Fisher is known for, it’s a thorough and diligent proposal for any project that involves major upheaval for the MLB franchise he so carefully shepherds.

 

6 Connects

In what is pretty much a teaser for a teaser, the Toronto Blue Jays have confirmed they’re going to be revealing their City Connect uniforms at the end of next month:

Anybody got any guesses for content? All I know about Toronto is either way too generically dumb (Did you know Drake is from there?!) or too obscurely dumb (PUP references?!)

 

Best Moments From Yesterday

 

Interleague Play Is Back!

The Yankees are gearing up to play their home opener on Friday with a 6-1 record, with that sixth win coming at the end of a very wild game, almost assuredly one of the drunker daytime April games I’ve seen for sure. A mostly standard affair for the first nine innings, the Yankees and D-Backs went into the 10th inning tied 2-2, which was quickly broken by an Alexander Verdugo two-run homer that scored Gleyber Torres (Side note, I managed to totally forget the Manfred Man was a thing in extra innings. Blissful ignorance).

Then things got weird. In the bottom half of the inning came a sequence of events that will prove most frustrating for anybody with an interest in Clay Holmes successfully converting his fourth save opportunity of the season:

A screenshot from the BaseballSavant gamefeed showing several softly-hit ground balls

That’s two runs worth of worm burners. And on to the 11th we go.

The Yankees would score another two runs in the 11th thanks to a Gleyber single and Aaron Judge double, but it was another dramatic home end as Holmes started the frame by clipping Christian Walker with a wildly errant sweeper. He struck out Eugenio Suárez (Holmes’ only K to date this year!) and was replaced by Caleb Ferguson who struck out Jace Peterson on four pitches. But then he allowed a Jorge Barrosa single that brought Lourdes Gurriel Jr. home, bringing Arizona back within one run with runners on second and third, but two outs.

Torey Lovullo opted to pinch hit for left-handed Joc Pederson with Gabriel Moreno, but that left his bench looking…depleted:

A still frame from YES Network showing that there are no position players available on the Diamondbacks bench

 

Aaron Boone called Lovullo’s bluff and proceeded to intentionally walk Moreno, which meant the game came down to the bat of… Scott McGough.

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McGough was no MacGuffin yesterday, though, and he struck out on four pitches. However, he spit on a close upstairs 95 mph fastball, and fouled off another well-located high heat:

View post on imgur.com

Anyway, here’s to not having to watch pitchers do this kind of thing constantly anymore!

 

What Season Is It?!

Not in a Jumanji way, but in a “Wait rain and what?!”

But it wasn’t a bust for those who braved the Chicago weather. Well, for some of those in attendance who like Spencer Strider, at least.

 

High Tides And Scorigami

Some teams must be very happy right now that MLB doesn’t have any sort of relegation system because Norfolk would absolutely be coming for some teams:

The Tides’ roster is a who’s who of big-name Baltimore bats, and on Wednesday the top dog had to have been Heston Kjerstad, who ended the day with 10 RBI. Kyle Stowers only managed seven!

 

Cruz Control

Now, c’mon Reds, you can’t count Spring Training or loop back around to 2023! But my (correct) pedantry aside, I think this is actually a fun fact because while it really means that Elly has a six-game hitting streak, his current line is: .250/.280/.417, which is not exactly what I usually expect to see for a multi-game hitting streak like that. He’s got one hit in each of those six games to go with one walk.

Well hey, I thought it was a little interesting.

 

Classic Good Looks

And now, for your moment of baseball fashion zen:

 

Injuries and Other Moves

 

⚾ In an update on Josh Jung and his newly surgically repaired wrist, Texas is now estimating 8-10 weeks as the repair was “a bit more involved” than originally thought.

⚾ Arizona’s Geraldo Perdomo suffered a mystery knee injury on Wednesday. He’s being listed as “day-to-day” but as of the post-game, manager Torey Lovullo said he “is not sure what happened”, so keep an eye out for updates on the Thursday off-day.

⚾ Dave Roberts told reporters that Walker Buehler is continuing to rehab with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate, and he’ll be starting Saturday.

⚾ And in other rehab pitching news, Justin Verlander is scheduled to start at Triple-A Sugar Land this Sunday.

 

Articles You Should Read

 

Fouling At Nothing – Mike Baumann, FanGraphs

What The 2024 Forbes Data Tell Us – Rob Mains, Baseball Prospectus (sub req’d)

 

Fantasy Baseball Coverage

 

Is It Legit?

Closing Time

Starting Pitcher Streamers

 

Photos courtesy of Icon Sportswire

Adapted by Kurt Wasemiller (@kurtwasemiller on Twitter / @kurt_player02 on Instagram)

Asher Dratel

Asher hails from Brooklyn, wears a 2008 Joba Chamberlain jersey to every Yankees game he attends, and pronounces BABIP funny. Appreciator of Beefy Lad dingers and beers. @asherd.xyz on Bluesky.

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